Shipping Containers Blog

Posts Tagged ‘shipping container sizes’

When you buy or hire a shipping container usually you do so by size.   The size you choose is normally to suit what space you have available or how much you need to store or ship.   In fact shipping was responsible for determining shipping container sizes.   For what you probably don’t realise as you choose is that the standard sizes of shipping container – either 20ft or 40ft long by 8ft wide and 8ft 6in tall – revolutionised the cost of shipping.
These standard sizes meant that the loading and unloading of shipping containers could be mechanised.  Only a few pieces of equipment are needed to move the containers rather than the considerable manpower and different types of machinery that had been needed to move the varying shapes of palletised goods that had up until then been the norm.  It also meant that large numbers of shipping containers could be organized on a single ship as they are easily arranged in large stacks.
Of course the standard 20ft and 40ft are not the only sizes of shipping containers available.   There is a 20ft and 40ft high cube available which is 9ft 6in tall and is particularly useful for putting taller machinery and equipment in.   Smaller sizes of shipping container are also available such as the 8ft and 10ft long containers although these often have to be shipped as “special cargo” rather than going on the main container decks.
But nowadays, shipping containers are not just used for shipping.   They are used for secure, dry storage.   As such, they can be altered to any length from 40ft downwards.  Frequently, people ask for an 8ft or 10ft container believing that they will be cheaper than the 20ft.   Yet because a 10ft or and 8ft is usually cut down from a 20ft container, the additional labour means that the 10ft or 8ft is as – if not more – expensive than the standard 20ft size.  So, if you have room for the larger size, it is often worth buying as you get more storage space for a similar amount of money.